Crappiest day of his life
by Ilmare-Ilse
Summary: Spoilers for episode 6x08 - Cuckoo's nest. He thought this was one of the crappiest days of his life, but maybe things were about to change a bit.


If asked to make a list about the top ten crappiest days of his life, Don Flack Jr. would definitely put today on that list.

On second thought, the list should be called _crappiest months of his life_, since his misery couldn't really be measured in days lately.

He was just reaching his apartment building, after enjoying a lovely night of drinking, getting mugged, getting beat up by said muggers, getting rescued by none other than Terrence Davis, ending up at Davis' place, having to hide from his "friends", and to top it all off, having Mac Taylor track him down and give him a tongue lashing he would remember for years to come.

Danny had looked for him all night, even calling hospitals to see if he had was injured or dead somewhere.

Damn, he had promised to get his act together, he would deal with his issues and he would get over this, whatever _this_ was. The problem was that he had no idea _how_ to get over this! If he had, he wouldn't have been trying to drown himself in cheap whiskey, work and the pretence that everything was just fine.

With hunched shoulders and a pounding headache, he managed to reach his door. Fumbling with his keys – which thankfully had stayed in his pockets through the whole mugging-beating up-puking his guts off saga, 'cause calling Messer to ask for his spare keys was not the most appealing prospect right now – He finally managed to unlock his door and prepared himself for the sight of garbage, dust and loneliness that awaited him inside.

The sight that greeted him left him with his mouth hanging slightly open. His coffee table was spotless, all the dirty laundry that had accumulated for the last weeks, maybe months, was nowhere to be found, the floor looked clean, all the pizza and takeout leftovers were gone, and he could smell coffee brewing in the machine.

If it wasn't for the angry looking Danny Messer sitting on a chair he would have gone back out to check if he was in the right apartment.

Seeing Danny's angry expression, he couldn't help but putting up his defenses. "If I needed a maid I would have hired one a long time ago. You didn't need to go through all that trouble."

Danny didn't look amused at all. "Well, since you've been missing for a couple of days now, I thought I'd check if I could find your dead body underneath all the crap lying around your place."

That sobered Don. "Mac said you called the hospitals asking for me."

"Yeah, usually when your friend has been missing for a couple of days, and you find out that he's been drinking himself out, you tend to think the worst case scenario. Sid didn't mention anything about you showing up in the morgue, so I thought the hospitals were a good option."

Don sighed, moving tiredly to the couch and sitting with hunched shoulders. "I'm sorry Danny, I wasn't thinking, and lately I felt that if I drank enough, then maybe the pain would go away… I've been doing it all wrong…" He said, looking down. He lifted his gaze to look at Danny. "I talked to Mac, and he's right, I have to get over this, and I will… I need to regain his trust, so I will get through this and go back to doing my job-"

"How exactly are you planning on doing that?" Danny asked.

"What?" Don looked confused.

Danny patiently explained. "You say that you are going to get through this. And I'm all for that, but my question is: How do you plan to get over it?"

Don looked around, running his fingers though his hair and making a very convincing impression of a caged animal. "I-I don't know… I have to! I will… I will do… Something!! I ha-have to!!"

Don's breaths were hitched, and he was starting to shake slightly. Danny stood up slowly from his chair and moved to sit on the couch by Don's side, putting a calming hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, hey… calm down… You'll make it…"

Don seemed to relax a little bit. "Sure, but ho-how do I do that?!"

Still keeping a hand on Don's shoulder, Danny sat back, looking at the ceiling. "Well, shrinks always say that the first step is to accept that you have a problem and to ask for help…"

If it weren't for the misery written all over Don's face, he would have laughed at that. Instead, he turned his head to look at Danny's face. "Who died and made you Doctor Phil?"

Danny shrugged. "Hey! We've interrogated a shrink or two!! As a matter of fact, I just came here from a mental institution!"

"Were you looking for brochures?"

"Ha ha ha… very funny. Just be thankful that you look half dead already or you'd be slapped on the back of the head. My point is that if you feel that you can't handle it alone, then you ask for help, end of story."

Don was starting to shake again. "What- what if even after I've asked for help, we still can't fix it?"

"Then we look for someone who can until it gets fixed..." Danny said, gently squeezing his shoulder.

Don hunched over, burying his head on his hands, his shoulders shaking with his sobs.

"Hey… Hey! Come on, it'll be alright" was Danny's response, gently pulling Don's head towards his shoulder and patting him awkwardly on the back. After a few minutes, Don calmed down and straightened himself.

"Sorry Danno, I shouldn't have…I-I'm sorry man…"

"About what? Nothing to apologize for!"

Don wouldn't meet Danny's eyes. "I've been such a mess, and you've had to track my ass down the city, and-"

"Hey, if I remember correctly, you've tracked my sorry ass down the city on more than one occasion, so I guess that makes us even…" Danny said, challenging Don to contradict him.

"But-"

"No buts, as long as you let us help when we can, and don't go off by yourself drinking everything that crosses your way… Hell, at least buy me a beer while you're at it!"

Don gave Danny a sad smile, touched by his friend's concern. "Thanks man, I promise I will…" Suddenly he noticed something. "Is it just me or you were walking around without your cane?"

Danny looked genuinely happy. "I'm going solo. I can proudly say that I'm taking my wobbly steps all by myself. It hurts like a bitch, but it's totally worth it!"

Don looked concerned. "Dan, if you're not ready yet, maybe you should ask the doctor…"

"Don't worry about it, man. I've recently had a front view of how messed up things get when people hide their pain for too long." He raised an eyebrow at Don, who had de decency to look chagrined.

"It won't happen again, Dan"

"See that it doesn't." Danny moved to stand up. "I gotta get back to the lab. Talk to you later?"

Don stood up from the couch too. "Actually, I should go to talk to Mac too… I'll just take a quick shower-"

He was interrupted by Danny. "Man, you look ready to fall over! Get some sleep and at least take care of the hangover from hell you're pretending you don't have. Mac will still be there in a few hours."

Don sighed. "Alright. Thanks again for everything, Dan."

Danny waved his hand dismissively. "Nothing you wouldn't have done for me, man. It's just good to have you back." They both moved to share an awkward hug.

"See ya later, man"

"See ya…"

As he moved tiredly to his bedroom – His bed was calling him, and he wasn't about to ignore it's call anymore – He was surprised to realize that one of his top ten crappiest days of his life had ended up (or started, he couldn't really tell at this point) with him with hopes of a better future.

Maybe thins wasn't such a crappy day after all.

* * *

A/N: I felt that something was missing from this episode, and that Flack was left with the obligation to get better, but no means to do it, so this came up.

I hope you leave a note, whether you liked it or not!

And thanks for reading!!!


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